The Roadmap to Establish the Ministry of Energy in Iran

Energy governance in different countries is assessed based on four elements of policy approach, policy objectives, policy institutions and policy instruments. Among these four elements, the subject of the present article is the political institutions and it is aimed to formulate a specific roadmap for establishing the Ministry of Energy in Iran. To fulfil this aim, a set of necessary information to assess the energy governance structure in Iran was collected through library studies, comparative studies of the energy governance structure of selected countries and interviews with energy experts. Non-integrated energy planning and management in the Ministries of Oil and Power and the concentration of regulatory and management layers in these two ministries were identified as the most important challenges of energy governance in Iran. A consensus among energy experts was that establishing ministry of Energy to integrated planning and management of the energy sector was the solution. In the next stage, during more than 110 sessions in a specialized panel consisting of experts in the fields of energy economics, upstream and downstream oil and gas, electricity, energy regulation, energy governance and oil and gas rights, the reforms needed to establish an efficient Ministry of Energy was determined and then discussed in a panel of experts for validation. These reforms are: Appointment of Deputy for Energy Affairs, Establishment of the Strategic Energy Organization, Refine the Supreme Energy Council law, Compilation of a comprehensive energy law by the Strategic Energy Organization aiming to reform the energy governance system and take the necessary measures to establish the Ministry of Energy, implementation of the comprehensive energy law by the Strategic Energy Organization.